• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:10
CEST 11:10
KST 18:10
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call7[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!23Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week3Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles2GSTL Returns in 2026!45Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out7
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week Starcraft2 player guess game is Coming~! SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? PhD study /w SC2 - help with a survey!
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WORTEX 2026 - Hungarian SC2 Finals Budapest
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 540 Dodge This The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome Mutation # 538 Media Blackout
Brood War
General
New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! 25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 BW General Discussion Looking 4 Yaroslav: Enemy, Korchagin, WCG, Ukraine Pros React To: First 'Fastest' Map in ASL History
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro24 Group F Brood War in Budapest ! WORTEX 2026 BW Finals [ASL22] Ro24 Group E Escore Tournament - Season 3
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Replay Review Process - What do you do? Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Dating: How's your luck?
Fan Clubs
The Creator Fan Club MarineLorD Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Young Players Exit Esports E…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Hello guys!
LIN1s
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3317 users

Yatzy Probability

Blogs > Ximeng
Post a Reply
Ximeng
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
China57 Posts
July 27 2012 03:46 GMT
#1
I was debating with a friend the optimal play for this situation:

You are going for a large straight (5 dice in sequence) you have 3 rolls. You may keep any dice between rolls.

Your first roll comes up as a 5 3 3 2 1.

With 2 rolls left is it better to:
a) roll the extra 3 and try to change it to a 4 to complete a sequence of 5 to 1
b) roll the extra 3 and the 1 to try to complete a sequence of 6 to 2 or 5 to 1

What is the probability of success in each case?

The answer is actually quite surprising.

*****
I'm not Chinese but it would be okay if I were
Jumbled
Profile Joined September 2010
1543 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-27 08:19:31
July 27 2012 04:03 GMT
#2
You've got a probability of success of slightly over 30% in the first case and slightly over 35% in the second. In other words, the option with more outcomes is a bit better but not hugely so, which is about what I would expect.

Edit: On second thoughts, there's some double counting in that 35% figure. It's actually going to be less than that.

Yup, without the double-counting it comes to 27.777...%
ghrur
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States3786 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-27 04:27:30
July 27 2012 04:11 GMT
#3
Nvm. Read that wrong. 2 rolls left. Derp Dx
darkness overpowering
Iranon
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States983 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-27 07:31:21
July 27 2012 04:14 GMT
#4
Rolling a single die and getting a 4: 1/6 = 16.67%
Chance of this with 2 shots it: (1/6)+(5/6)(1/6) = 30.56%

Rolling two dice and getting either (4,6), (6,4), (1,4), or (4,1): 4/36 = 11.11%
Chance of this with 2 shots at it: (4/36)+(32/36)(4/36) = 13.58%


Edit: blah, my second case is wrong, you should also factor in the chance that you get either a 1/4/6 on the first try and the other number you need on the second try. Going to sleep instead of writing it out.

Edit 2: Can't sleep, might as well fix this. We're rolling up to 2 dice up to 2 times, trying for either a 4 and a 6 or a 4 and a 1:
On your first roll, you should keep anything with one of those three numbers, or
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 24, 26, 31, 34, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 54, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66

In four of those twenty-seven possibilities (14, 41, 46, 64), you're done.
In 7 of the others (24, 34, 42, 43, 44, 45, 54) you have a 4 and a useless number -- on your next roll you need a 1 or a 6 (1/3).
In the other sixteen, you have a 1 or a 6 and a useless number -- on your next roll you need a 4 (1/6).

If you don't roll any of those twenty-seven, then on your second roll you need to hit 14, 41, 46, or 64 (4/36).

So overall, the probability for the second option is (4/36)+(7/36)(1/3)+(16/36)(1/6) + (9/36)(4/36) = 27.78%

This is less than, but surprisingly close to, the probability of doing the first option.
n.DieJokes
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States3443 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-27 04:46:53
July 27 2012 04:19 GMT
#5
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"
MyLove + Your Love= Supa Love
Jumbled
Profile Joined September 2010
1543 Posts
July 27 2012 04:57 GMT
#6
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.
n.DieJokes
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States3443 Posts
July 27 2012 05:08 GMT
#7
On July 27 2012 13:57 Jumbled wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.

How do you figure?
MyLove + Your Love= Supa Love
RAGEMOAR The Pope
Profile Joined February 2011
United States216 Posts
July 27 2012 05:14 GMT
#8
On July 27 2012 14:08 n.DieJokes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 27 2012 13:57 Jumbled wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.

How do you figure?



For #1

1/6 chance that you win THEN
5/6 chance that 1/6 win

11/36 chance.
n.DieJokes
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States3443 Posts
July 27 2012 05:15 GMT
#9
On July 27 2012 14:14 RAGEMOAR The Pope wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 27 2012 14:08 n.DieJokes wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:57 Jumbled wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.

How do you figure?



For #1

1/6 chance that you win THEN
5/6 chance that 1/6 win

11/36 chance.

Ah true, whoopsies
MyLove + Your Love= Supa Love
RAGEMOAR The Pope
Profile Joined February 2011
United States216 Posts
July 27 2012 05:17 GMT
#10
On July 27 2012 14:15 n.DieJokes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 27 2012 14:14 RAGEMOAR The Pope wrote:
On July 27 2012 14:08 n.DieJokes wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:57 Jumbled wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.

How do you figure?



For #1

1/6 chance that you win THEN
5/6 chance that 1/6 win

11/36 chance.

Ah true, whoopsies


Same applies to your second case, except much, much more wrong.
n.DieJokes
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States3443 Posts
July 27 2012 05:19 GMT
#11
On July 27 2012 14:17 RAGEMOAR The Pope wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 27 2012 14:15 n.DieJokes wrote:
On July 27 2012 14:14 RAGEMOAR The Pope wrote:
On July 27 2012 14:08 n.DieJokes wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:57 Jumbled wrote:
On July 27 2012 13:19 n.DieJokes wrote:
+ Show Spoiler [solution] +
For one die, its 1/6 +1/6. So 1/3 chance.

The other one is trickier:
Both win: 2*(1/3)(1/3) * (36/36) because there are two ways
One win one lose: 2*(2/3)(1/3)*(1/6)
Both lose: (2/3)(2/3)*(2/36)*2

Add em all up!
.37 and some change for option two, Thus its better

Edit: For more fun probability problems theres a super cheap dover book called like "50 interesting problems in probability with solutions"

You may want to redo that, your numbers are incorrect.

How do you figure?



For #1

1/6 chance that you win THEN
5/6 chance that 1/6 win

11/36 chance.

Ah true, whoopsies


Same applies to your second case, except much, much more wrong.

Oh well
MyLove + Your Love= Supa Love
Gnaix
Profile Joined February 2009
United States438 Posts
July 27 2012 06:53 GMT
#12
You can win in the second case by the following:

On your first roll you roll either (6, 4), (4, 6), (4, 1), (1, 4), in which case you don't need to roll the second time.
Probability: 4/36

On your first roll, one of your die rolls a 6 and the other rolls not a 4, in which case you keep the 6 die and you roll the other die a second time for a 4. There are 4*2+1 ways, since 6 paired with any other number can happen 2 ways but only 1 way with itself.
Probability: (4*2+1)/36*1/6

On your first roll, one of your die rolls a 1 and the other rolls not a 4, in which case you keep the 1 die and you roll the other die a second time for a 4. There are 4*2+1 ways.
Probability: (4*2+1)/36*1/6

On your first roll, one of your die rolls a 4 and other other rolls not a 6 or 2, in which case you keep the 4 die and roll the other die a second time for a 2 or 6. There are 3*2+1 ways.
Probability: (3*2+1)/36*1/3

On your first roll, you don't get any of the above, therefore you need to get (6,4) (4,6) (4,1) (1,4) on your second roll. There are 3*3 ways.
Probability: (3*3)/36*4/36

Total probability is the sum of the probabilities above which is around 0.29
one thing that sc2 has over bw is the fact that I can actually manage my hotkeys
Iranon
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States983 Posts
July 27 2012 07:33 GMT
#13
Gnaix, you're counting your first roll being a one and a six twice.
endy
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Switzerland8970 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-27 11:23:01
July 27 2012 11:22 GMT
#14
nvm recalculting
ॐ
Helge
Profile Joined August 2011
Ukraine4 Posts
July 27 2012 15:19 GMT
#15
1) Chance to lose is equal to NOT getting 4 on two tries, that's (5/6)*(5/6)=25/36. Chance to win is therefore 1-(25/36)=11/36 approx. 30,6%

2) A bit more complicated calculation. On your first try, out of 6*6=36 possible rolls, you can either make:
- perfect rolls = instant win. You need to roll either (1,4) or (6,4) or (4,1) or (4,6). The chance is 4/36 = 1/9.
- good rolls = have 4 but not a perfect one. 7 possible rolls: (4,2),(4,3),(4,5),(4,4),(2,4),(3,4),(5,4). The chance is 7/36
- awful rolls = no 1,4 or 6 on any dices. There are 3*3=9 such rolls. The chance is 9/36 = 1/4.
- questionable rolls - have 1 or 6 but no 4. All rolls that remains, so there are 36-4-7-9=16 of them. The chance is 16/36=4/9.

Your second try depends on your first try:
- perfect roll - you already won, the overall chance is 1/9, or approx. 11,1%
- good roll. Keeping 4 let's you win in 2 out of 6 rolls (1 or 6), which is much better that rolling 2 dices again. So the overall chance is (7/36)*(2/6) = approx. 6,5%
- awfull roll. Need to roll perfect second time, so the chance is = (1/4)*(1/9)= approx. 2,8%
- questionable roll, you can either keep 1 dice (1 or 6) or reroll both of them. In the first case your chances are 1/6 (roll 4 on 1 dice), or 1/9 (a perfect roll as described above). So naturally you'll want to roll 1 dice. So yout overall chance is (4/9)*(1/6)= approx. 7,4%

Total chance is 11,1%+6,5%+2,8%+7,4% = 27,8% (rounding errors are about 0.1%).

So the first strategy is better.
KillerDucky
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States498 Posts
July 27 2012 19:37 GMT
#16
Well this bypasses the exercise of calculating probabilities on your own, but there is an awesome Yahtzee calculator:
http://www-set.win.tue.nl/~wstomv/misc/yahtzee/osyp.php

For this situation, you can put a 0 in for everything except the Large Straight to force it to consider that option. Give it 53321 as roll #1, and it says:

#1 Keep 53_21, roll 3 = EV 12.22
#2 Keep 53_2_, roll 3,1 = EV 11.11

Since you're going to succeed and get 40 points, or fail and get 0 points, you can calculate probability for success:
#1 12.11/40 = 30.275%
#2 11.11/40 = 27.775%


MarineKingPrime Forever!
32
Profile Joined February 2010
United States163 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-28 09:48:15
July 27 2012 19:44 GMT
#17
I was bored so I printed out all the possibilities.
http://pastebin.com/mXCjB1Uq
I might be doing it wrong but I don't think so. The entries with a + sign are added to the total probability, and I do keep track of the probability of the roll when I add it to the total. I ended up with 25.3086419753%, I think python has negligible rounding errors though. Only rolling the second 3 again obviously gives you a 2/3 chance of completing the straight as other people have said (edit: I actually thought about it and now I think rolling two times for a four gives you a 1/6 + (5/6*1/6) probability or a 0.3055 repeating chance. Happily I factored this into the program before I made this mistake, so hopefully nothing else needs to be changed.), so I think it is better, without even considering the difference in probability between getting a large straight and a small one. Here's the code.
http://pastebin.com/KxTA83f9
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 50m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SortOf 136
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 7586
BeSt 432
Dewaltoss 121
Mind 76
ToSsGirL 46
Hm[arnc] 39
Killer 21
ZergMaN 13
NotJumperer 6
firebathero 0
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss847
olofmeister738
Other Games
gofns14139
ceh9576
JimRising 432
Happy269
Sick158
Mew2King155
Pyrionflax149
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 38
• LUISG 15
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV319
• lizZardDota2132
League of Legends
• Jankos879
Upcoming Events
Afreeca Starleague
50m
Mini vs Calm
Queen vs EffOrt
WardiTV Invitational
1h 50m
ByuN vs herO
Classic vs SHIN
Patches Events
6h 50m
Replay Cast
14h 50m
The PondCast
1d
Replay Cast
1d 14h
Escore
2 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
GSL
3 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
GSL
6 days
PiGosaur Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 22: Qualifier 1
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
META DYMY #4

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL Season 22: Qualifier 2
RSL Revival: Season 6
Light Tournament 2026
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

BSL 2026 LAN: Kraków
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Calamity Invitational
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.